The ‘Redykyulass Generation‘S’ intellectual interventions in Kenyan public life

Abstract

This article is interested in the intellectual contributions of the youth to Kenyan public life. It focuses on what has been called the 'Redykyulass Generation' as a contemporary generation of politically engaged youths who have successfully used various genres of popular cultural productions and media platforms to engage with Kenyan social imaginaries. Using three case studies -the Redykyulass group and the writings of Binyavanga Wainaina and Parselelo Kantai -the article examines this generation's ongoing reconstruction of what constitutes knowledge and its contributions in shaping Kenyan public life, while critically engaging with what can be termed the 'geronto-masculine' texture of Kenyan political and intellectual public life. The study suggests that the Redykyulass Generation has variously fractured certain conventions embedded in the sociopolitical terrains of Kenyan public life, while attaining both social relevance and popularity in Kenyan social imaginaries.

Participatory Media Cultures: Virality, Humour, and Online Political Contestations in Kenya

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Comic Strips and “the Crisis”: Postcolonial Laughter and Coping With Everyday Life in Zimbabwe

“…This article hereby contributes to recent work by other scholars who have pointed towards the self-reflexive nature of laughter in the post-colony (Ogola 2005;Obadare 2009;Musila 2010). Discussing satirical columns in a popular Kenyan newspaper, Ogola (2005: 147) has argued that "[n]ot only do the columns satirize the empty pomp of dictatorial politics, they also enact the ambiguities of popular participation in these processes".…”

Binyavanga Wainaina’s Narrative of the IMF-generation as Development Critique

“…writers' engagement with "project Kenya". A more class-critical version of the IMF-generation is provided by Parselelo Kantai's (2007) proposed "reddykulass generation" in his essay (see also Musila 2013aMusila , 2010. 8.…”